Talk for now in Syria, but prepare to arm

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REYHANLI, Turkey – Here on the border between Turkey and Syria, evidence abounds that Bashir Al-Assad is winning.

Despite widespread rumors, no organized effort is under way to arm rebel fighters. The opposition “Free Syrian Army” remains a poorly equipped and loosely organized militia unable to stop a Syrian army still loyal to Assad. At the same time, a sectarian conflict between Assad’s ruling Allawite minority and Syria’s Sunni majority is intensifying.

In northern Syria, Sunni and Allawite villages have divided into pro- and anti-government enclaves, according to fleeing refugees. At checkpoints, government security forces order people to pray to the country’s Allawite leader. If they refuse, they are deemed Sunni subversives. And Sunni army defectors say Allawite officers threatened them with execution if they refused to fire on demonstrators.

“I had to do it,” a remorseful 24-year-old Sunni soldier who defected this week told me. “If I don’t fire, someone will kill me.”

At Friday’s “Friends of Syria” meeting in Tunis, the United States and its allies should demand cease fires that would allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged enclaves. And they should pressure the predominantly Sunni Syrian opposition to unify, gain firmer control of rebel fighters and more aggressively court Allawites, Christians and other minorities to join them.

If the bloodletting intensifies in the weeks ahead, Washington should allow Arab countries to give the rebels limited amounts of military equipment — such as anti-tank missiles and secure communication systems — that if properly used would do more harm to Assad’s army than Allawite civilians. Some analysts warn that arming the rebels could spread and intensify the conflict, but a sectarian war is already underway, foreign intervention is unlikely and military pressure must be brought to bear on Assad.

In refugee camps and makeshift hospitals here, disillusioned Syrians are begging the outside world to act in conflict that has claimed an estimated 6,000 lives and become the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings. Ayam Kurdi, a former Syrian Army captain and member of the Free Syrian Army, said the fighting will gradually become more protracted, chaotic and bloody.

“If there is no support or help for the situation in Syria, then Syria will become another Somalia,” he said. “They have their duty to the human beings of Syria.”

Kurdi and other opposition members argued that the Syrian Army will quickly collapse if a safe haven is created in northern Syria and opposition fighters receive anti-tank weapons. His prediction, though, is hugely optimistic.

Divisions may exist within the Syrian Army, but no one knows their true extent. The defecting soldier said that over the last three months roughly 50 to 100 soldiers had disappeared while he served in the southern city of Daraa. Some deserted, he said, while others were apparently detained or shot.

“Some of them try to run,” he said. “Some of them refuse to shoot.”

Syrian civilians, meanwhile, say the Free Syrian Army is not capable of defeating Assad’s military.

“They are not the solution,” said one Syrian, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They are not so strong, they are not so organized. You cannot say that the revolution will be won by them.”

The ugly truth is that Assad is calling the world’s bluff and winning. Russia and China are shamefully coddling their authoritarian proxy. The United States and its NATO allies lack the political will to mount a Libya-style air campaign. Turkey expresses outrage, but appears unwilling to create a safe haven on its border.

On the ground here, the Syrian opposition is impressive. Former businessmen, construction workers and teachers have established a network that smuggles satellite phones, foreign journalists and video cameras into northern Syria. They upload videos to YouTube from their refugee camps and wait for the world to respond.

While American intelligence officials believe some hardline Islamists have infiltrated the opposition, the vast majority of Sunni refugees interviewed here talked of creating a tolerant, democratic country free of sectarian rifts and corruption. They lamented Syria’s status as an international pariah and cited moderate Muslim countries like Turkey and Malaysia as their model.

“We want to live a dignified life,” Mostafa Masri, a 31-year-old car mechanic turned refugee, told me. “We want a liberal country that has all kinds of sects.”

The broader Syrian opposition, though, remains deeply divided. Wounded opposition members here expressed disdain for the Syrian National Council, the most prominent of several exile groups. They accused council membvers of living comfortably in London and Istanbul while doing little to help fighters in Syria.

“This council only represents itself, they are searching for chairs and authorities,” said Khalid Ibrahim Aslan, a 32-year-old man recovering from a leg wound he received at a demonstration. “The rebels inside Syria are the leaders of the revolution.”

In the end, a central question is whether Syria will become the next Lebanon, Bosnia or something different.

From 1975 to 1990, weapons and cash from other countries flowed into Lebanon prolonged a brutal civil war. Neighboring states backed country’s myriad militias, creating a regional war and extending Lebanon’s agony. An estimated 140,000 people died.

In Bosnia, a wholly different dynamic emerged. A UN peacekeeping mission and humanitarian aid efforts prolonged the conflict in some ways instead of ending it. Arming Croatian and Bosnian forces turned the military tide in 1995 and brought the Serbs to the bargaining table after 100,000 people perished.

The U.S., the Arab League and Turkey must proceed slowly in Syria. Rebel demands for no-fly-zones and safe havens should be rejected until the opposition unifies, includes more non-Sunnis and shows military cohesion. Syrians, not foreign troops, must lead the fight.

In interviews here, increasingly frustrated Syrians insisted they were up to the task.

“When I recover, I’m going back with a weapon,” said Aslan, the 32-year-old man shot at a demonstration. “No more peaceful protest. We have to protect ourselves and our people.”

If the brutality continues in the weeks ahead, Arab nations, with the approval of the U.S., should give him the weapons he needs to end Assad’s rule.

PHOTO: Syrians hold national flags during a protest against Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad in Kafranbel near Idlib February 21, 2012. REUTERS/Handout

Posted by SYRIAN REVOLT RESULTS IN GENOCIDE OF THE PEOPLE BY THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT &laquo; THE WORD WARRIOR Bonju Blog | Report as abusive

Feb 26, 2012

10:50 am UTC

Syrian army brutality indicating that there is no solution except to wipe-out Asad’s government by force as American allied forces did in Iraq under the umbrella of UN.
This century is the century of democracy, and people are considered real ruler of their lands, as they have phenomenal right to choose the path according to demand of the social norms and ethics.
Now no-one can make them slave as we have sovereign organization in the name of UN a real assembly to resolve the disputes amongst the nations either individual or territorial.

Why, just WHY should the US be in control of other Arab nations´ own decisions to supply weapons to the Syrian rebels or not? Every time I read articles like this one, makes me wonder who the hell appointed the US work organizer and world police. The stupid world is allowing this to happen and it is really, really a bad decision!!! When one loses the ability to think and reasons things out and delegates that ability to another country, all is lost. And then, when the conceited and pompous US starts meddling in other people´s businesses because they feel empowered to do so as they were made to believe, then the countries that allowed that to happen begin to pout and complain!!! Come on lame brained stupid people. You brought this upon yourselves for not allowing yourselves to make decisions that only belong to YOU!!!

To arm who ? The Syrian opposition forces are known to be supported by Al Qaeda. Will US ever know what they are doing ? So far US has been performed blunder after blunder. There can be only two US motives as far as Arabs are concerned : oil and Israel.

Author Profile

David Rohde is an investigative reporter for Reuters. He served as a Reuters foreign affairs columnist from 2011 to 2013. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a former reporter for the New York Times and Christian Science Monitor. His most recent book is "Beyond War: Reimagining America's Role and Ambitions in a New Middle East."